1.) How many people would a typical gyps-, er, Varisian caravan include? How many families? How many wagons?
2.) If they've settled into a comfortable, seasonal migration (hitting the same towns and cities at about the same time each year), how much ground might their range cover?
3.) And finally, assuming a more norther clime (like Varisia), what would they do during the winter?
A typical Gypsy Caravan would have 10 - 30 people each wagon would have possibly horse or donkey, cow, rooster, chickens, goat, a typical family could have up to 13 brothers and sisters if you go by our standards of families in the old country in the old days... my family included... You would have a witch, a sorcerer, a cleric of desna, a harrower (bard or sorcerer), bards and or thieves, and commoners, experts, warriors, and the odd fighter, ranger etc...
They range all over the "western" areas of Avistan, ie not the Kellish lands caravan wise anyway althought individuals are all over Golarion :) Their Homeland is Varisia/Ustalav, (Vampire/Vampyre) Is a Varisian word... and there are Scarni Wherewolves out there...
Some Seasonally migrate, some take the same rout, but most take the walkabout, fallowing the wimsy of where the harrowdeck points... wherever Desna points... we'll go thatway... Literally going a new direction whenever the sun comes up... Although the big meating place is in Magnimar as its an ancient holy place or meeting place where the clans meet once a year. Most dont stay in one place to find winter... they would follow the game or go from city to city... selling goods and news, and perfoming - fiddling, singing, dancing, telling stories, and fortune telling :)
Thanks; I actually didn't know about the annual meeting in Magnimar. One of my players pictures her caravan as having settled into a yearly migration within Varisia; I know that the range she has chosen is much too small (it would only be a weeks' travel), but I'm not sure how large it should actually be.
Can you really spend the whole of winter traveling in Varisia? Well.. okay, yea, looking at the Climate section it looks like I might have been worrying too much about "varisian winters" (as far north as that I was assuming a lot of snow, but it sound like that would be balanced by a lot of cold rain which would just wash the snow away).
pacific NW
Right, exactly! That makes sense. It would make for a dramatic shift in clime when moving north into Linnorm territory, though, wouldn't it? Would that mostly happen at the Velashu Uplands, when you step behind all those mountains?
Ya the Varisians would move south of the Mountains in winter running just south of the Stoval plateau running from Riddleport, to Magnimar to Korvosa, but they would travel all the way to Taldor. Remember, Taldor gets warm as it is more mediterainean. They would also be in Isger, Malthune, Nirmathas and Lastwall :) They arnt just in Varisia. They are even found all over the River Kingdomes and Mendev and Brevoy areas :) They usually dont keep a regular rout at all. And they are very russian gypsy ;) I really liked the first Pathfinder Novel as it was all about the Varisians :)
Ya you can have one or two wagons or hundreds of wagons together at a time :)
Ya the Varisians would move south of the Mountains in winter running just south of the Stoval plateau running from Riddleport, to Magnimar to Korvosa, but they would travel all the way to Taldor. Remember, Taldor gets warm as it is more mediterainean. They would also be in Isger, Malthune, Nirmathas and Lastwall :) They arnt just in Varisia. They are even found all over the River Kingdomes and Mendev and Brevoy areas :) They usually dont keep a regular rout at all. And they are very russian gypsy ;) I really liked the first Pathfinder Novel as it was all about the Varisians :)
Yea, I get that, but like I said my player envisioned her caravan as staying native to Varisia and I'm trying to make that work (I imagine there must be some who embrace both the traditional lifestyle AND the traditional "homeland").
Ya I am sure there are lots of stay at homes that just live in farms, or in the cities of Varisia, and in fact I know there is, and there are those that stay in the area :)
Just like there are those that just Caravan around Ustalav or the River Kingdomes...